2021 brought a lot of ups and downs in life and in running, but overall a great year for me on the trails. It represented my 30th year of dedicated running, turning 40, running the most elevation (317,743 ft) and the most miles (2,674 mi) I have ever done in a year . I accomplished that in 352 runs and over 550 hours. I cannot thank Coach Matt enough for guiding me through all those miles and hours mostly injury free. More importantly, I cannot thank my amazing wife Sarah enough for all the support and helping to create all the opportunities to go out on the trails around the rest of our lives. She really is the best.
What I didn’t do in 2021 was write about my fall adventures including my finish of the Barkley Fall Classic (BFC) 50K or my strongest marathon finish in 15 years at Millinocket. I do not know really why I never felt inspired to write about them. I struck me as funny that the BFC that inspired me to start writing about my running in 2019 was the the race in 2021 that I didn’t want to write about. It was a day full of torrential rains, physically clawing your way up mud slides, and plenty of steep steady ascents. It was an epic adventure, and one of my favorites because I road tripped with my mom and my sister and they got to see me finish a race which they haven’t done since my high school days. Maybe that adventure was just for me.
I never wrote about Millinocket as I don’t think I had much to say about it. It was a mostly successful marathon for me. Finally finished Milli in under 4 hours (well under) but still had some upper hamstring and numb foot issues that I have suffered from in the past. However, I was able to run through most of the issues and really never had to resort to the run/walk method of years past. My take away from Millinocket was to dedicate the time back in the gym working on my weakness and come back at it for 2022 stronger.
2022 will be full of some great adventures including Frozen Yeti 30 hour in January, a 20 mile leg of the Riverland Relay in May, another run at Chocorua Mountains 25K in June, and then some dedicated training this summer for a go at Run Rabbit Run 100 in September, and round out the year with Millinocket in December. There might even be a top secret mission in there somewhere, which I will definitely write about when it happens. I am sure I will be in the NH white mountains again hitting some awesome loops and I can probably finish my NH 48 4K peaks. I am looking forward to many miles with my trail friends and the joys of being in the mountains.
I will end this year with a list of some top moments, good or bad, represented by a picture and caption, in no particular order. Happy New Year Friends, and in the words on Coach Matt “Onwards!”.
Scout being Scout and saying hi to a puppy on our last run together. This picture represents everything I love about running with Scout. She doesn’t care about times and will stop and “smell the roses” (aka pet the dogs or analysis animals tracks). I do not know how many miles I ran with Scout this year, but it was usually at least once a week and I could never list all our fun memories, but no yearly list of my memories is complete without a Scout. A picture of my last white mountain loop in NH. This picture represents all my winter snow running miles for the year. I think winter is the best time of year to run in New England when you take the best possible weather days and trail conditions and compare them over the seasons. My boy Loki. He loves winter running and is with me most winter months. He slows down and doesn’t like running in the summer, but we still got hundreds of miles together this year with lots of great memories chasing birds and squirrels.TMR Running Games. Lots of games with my friends at Trail monsters and lots of favorite moments doing or finding stuff. The beautiful loop at Bradbury Mountain region with friends. I ran it 3 or 4 times with different running friends and each loop had it own antics and fun. running through puddles and streams. I always love doing that. Makes me feel like a kid again. Finishing my first official 100 mile race, Riverland’s 100, surrounded by all my friends. All my mountain runs with Brent and Michael. Both great running buddies and lots of memories up and over mountains together. “Mr. Moose”- Brent. One of my favorite moments of the year was how excited Brent was to see a moose on the Kilkenny Ridge in NH. It was a great run and a great moment of simple joy. Well I did say the good and bad, everything else is good and this picture represents one of two runs that I would put in the bad category for the year, Never Summer 100K. I wrote about it in August and this race was a real challenge to finish. It was beautiful and it kicked my ass.
I will follow up my lowest point with one of my highest. Summitting Katahdin with my family. I was very proud of all of them for finishing this difficult climb. Finishing the BFC 50K in a better time then 2019 and having my mom and sister at the finish line. Epic race. It is a beautiful summit picture as part of the Grafton Notch 50K loop, but it was represents the 2nd run I would put in the bad category for the year. I wore new shoes (Altra Superior 4.5’s) that put me on the ground 4 times throughout the day. It was a very rough run for me that left me very sore for a few weeks from the falls. These shoes never went back in the mountains. crewing and pacing my good friend through his finish of mid state massive 100. It was my first time crewing or pacing someone during a 100 and it was a lot of fun!My 40th birthday celebration with running friends hosted by Scout at her home. Last but not least….stopping to “smell the roses” and feed the Gray Jay’s of the White Mountains.
Running with Love 